Invocation

2018 Community Graduation Celebration Invocation

By Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez

A native son of New Mexico with both Hispano and indigenous ancestral connections, Dr. Rael-Gálvez is currently a writer, creative strategist and the founding principal of Creative Strategies 360°, which supports transformative work within communities, governments, universities and cultural-based organizations. Prior to this, he was senior vice president of Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation; executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center; and State Historian of New Mexico. Below is his bilingual invocation for the 2018 Community Graduation Celebration taking place on June 21 at Zona del Sol - Earth Care.

I am deeply honored to be here this evening, for the first annual community graduation celebration and to stand here with Earth Care—who believe that young people can change the world and in the words of the Chicano movement, yes we can.

Let me begin as I learned early in life to do—acknowledging the ground upon which we stand today and recognizing the indigenous people, particularly the Tewa people, who have served as its stewards for millennia.

Here in this sovereign landscape, Pueblo elders have said that, “wherever we go, we leave our breath behind us” — an invocation recognizing those who came before us and how their life force remains with us long after they have gone.

In this way, we begin by calling the ancestors into the space. We may come here as individuals, but we stand here with thousands.

Like any commencement, we are gathered together this evening to celebrate academic ascendance and a journey forward. However, unlike any commencement I have attended, this is not about a single school, a single grade or class or even about a single individual. Today, we are recognizing the educational accomplishments of our entire community from the past year. There is something that you have all done this year— not just graduated, but for many, even completed a year of college, earned a license to work and then there are those who supported that effort.

Here, we rise with every achievement. Indeed, our strength lies in raising our collective voices, in standing up and saying we are here.

Although the history of the world is one of domination and power, our communities are under tremendous assault and it is a challenge not to acknowledge the reality of the world our children are navigating. But because of this darkness, it is all the more reason to illuminate who we are, who we dream of becoming.

Creating rituals therefore that fortify us,that help us see ourselves more clearly, help us perceive the beauty and strength has always been a way of creating presence, and in this way, it is an act of resistance.

The ritual of recognition is so important to anyone. Praise upon an individual of any age can create a tremendous shift – I see you, I hear you... However, creating praise for an entire community, holds a promise of a grand transformation that is without calculation.

• Before we begin the commencement, and by way of an invocation of sorts, as I was thinking about my remarks the other day, I called to mind one of my favorite scenes from the novel, Beloved. In it, the grandmother preacher, Baby Suggs gathered the community in a clearing in the forest. After she bowed her head in prayer, she said,

♦ “Let the children come,” and they ran from the trees toward her. “Let your mothers hear you laugh,' she told them.

♦ Then, she said, 'Let the grown men come,' she shouted.

They stepped out one by one from among the ringing trees. Let your wives and your children see you dance,' she told them, and the ground shuddered under their feet.”

♦ Finally she called the women to her. 'Cry,' she told them. 'For the living and the dead. Just cry.' And without covering their eyes the women let loose.

♦ It started that way: laughing children, dancing men, crying women and then it got mixed up. Women stopped crying and danced; men sat down and cried; children danced, women laughed, children cried until they were all gasping for breath.

♦ In the silence that followed, Baby Suggs, offered up to them wisdom. She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it.

♦ Here,' she said, 'in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard...” Because outside of this community, they do not love who you are, she said, then she asked them to love their eyes, their skin, their hands, their mouth, their neck and above all, she said, love your heart. For this is the prize.” And this is the praise that we begin with tonight.

Today, we are gathered in a clearing as well, and we also want to call forward the children, indeed all the generations— to recognize those of you who have graduated, at any level, Kindergarten, High School, Associate Degrees, Licensing, and graduate degrees. This is your day and we celebrate you.